What Air Pollution Is Slowly Doing To Our Brains

According to CBS News, a study published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke suggests that the pollution being breathed in on a daily basis may lead to cognitive impairment. A fine-particle pollution increase of just two micrograms per cubic meter (a range which can be observed across a typical city) yielded a 0.32 percent reduction in brain volume. That amount of change is equivalent to a year of brain aging, and also increased a person’s risk of silent strokes (strokes seen on brain scans but that don’t cause symptoms) by 46 percent. The link is not completely clear, but researchers believe air pollution may cause inflammation which has previously been linked to smaller brain volume.